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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Mewtwo EX & ReshiPlosion

Reshiram EX isn't part of this deck - find out why!

Hi to all
The Deck Out followers!

Typhlosion/Reshiram – the most played deck in the World Championships. The
endless no-brainer mirror matches frustrated everyone who was playing in the
Worlds last year. However, due the rise of Chandelure, Kyurem and Ross.dec the
ReshiPlosion list its winning momentum. However, can a single card like Mewtwo
EX change ReshiPlosion back to the winning path? I guess we’ll find out.

This will probably be the second last article of this Mewtwo EX series – last being
Zekrom.

Anyways, there is still one deck to go so let’s take a look at the skeleton
list of this deck.

I made it once again, a 60 card skeleton. Who would have thought that even ReshiPlosion
can be this full?

Card Explanations

There really isn’t
a point going through all of these cards in-depth because I’ve already done it
in my early ReshiPlosion article. If you want to get more in-depth explanations
from the certain cards of this deck, I suggest you check it out. You can find
it here.(LINKZ)

Reshiram

Reshiram is the
main attacker in this deck even if the deck runs Mewtwo EX. Reshiram is still
able to OHKO most of the things in the format and 2HKOs everything in the
format. Reshiram is exceptionally good card because it discards energy from
itself. That isn’t usually considered a good thing but at the moment it seems
like it is. There are many good and played attackers in the format that hit
more for each energy you have attached to yourself. Good examples are of course
Mewtwo EX; Cobalion(NVI) and Rotom, which Durant usually uses. These all cards
are almost useless against Reshiram. Reshiram, which works as a great main
attacker in this deck is one of the reasons, there is a point making an article
about this deck once again.

Typhlosion

Typhlosion is the secondary attacker and energy accelerator of this deck.
The deck runs 4-2-4 of Typhlosion but it could also run 4-2-3 or even 4-3-4
line of Typhlosions. The Typhlosion line should be built around the lines you
are the most comfortable with. Typhlosion is one of the cards that takes energy
from the discard pile so the deck’s draw engine should be built around powerful
discarding draws because Typhlosion makes it poissible.

Mewtwo EX

Typhlosion energy accelerates any Pokémon with its power and Mewtwo’s
X-Ball makes a good use out of its power. Mewtwo EX isn’t a card this deck
would desperately need but because Mewtwo EX is in the format and many other
decks use it as the main attacker, Mewtwo EX is a great secondary attacker in
this deck because it’s capable of OHKOing your opponent’s Mewtwo EX thanks to
Afterburner’s energy acceleration. The reason why Mewtwo EX can’t be the main
attacker of this deck is that Afterburner damages it. Mewtwo EX is easily
OHKOed by another Mewtwo EX even if it doesn’t have any damage counters on it
already and Afterburner makes it even easier. There is no point giving your
opponent easy two prizes with already damaged Mewtwo EX until it’s absolutely
necessary to use Mewtwo Ex.

Cleffa

Well I’m running a stage2 Pokémon in my deck and my deck isn’t built to hit
T1, so it’s only natural to run Cleffa in the deck. Cleffa is – simply put –
the best starter for almost every deck.

Pokegear 3.0. - Pokémon Collector

Nothing new here, consistency, consistency and once again – consistency. I
can’t emphasis that enough.

Professor Juniper – Sage’s Training

As said earlier, discarding draws are SO good in this deck. The deck runs a
maximum amount of Junk Arms and is able to take energy from the discard pile.
The final list might be able to get even Pokémon from the discard pile (with
Super Rod) so the only thing you can’t get from discard pile with this deck is
special energy and Supporters. Professo Juniper is the best straight draw of
the format and Sage’s is the second most efficient straight draw in this
format. If you are able draw the two best straight draws of the format, there
is no reason not to run them.

N

N should be a staple card for every deck that runs a Pokémon EX. Taking 2
prizes instead of 1 one is probably one of the reason why PCL decided to
reprint N. When you take 2 prizes, your hand size increases at the same time a
lot while your prize amount decrease a lot. N balances things. Suddenly, your
opponent’s 8 card hand turns into a 2 card hand thanks to N. N wasn’t able to
make that big of an impact after its release because decks were only attacking
with non-EX Pokémon and taking 1 prize at the time. Thanks to N and EX-format
you’re now able to come back from even a 4-1 prize position because you can
take those 4 prizes faster with your EX attacker and even faster if you are
able to kill your opponent’s Pokémon EX in the process.

Pokémon Communication

The deck needs Typhlosions for a proper set-up so Communication is a must.
Also, thanks to Mewtwo EX, the list has more Pokémon in the deck, which makes
Communication more useful than in the earlier versions, which ran only Pokémon
amounts between 12 and 14.

Rare Candy

The deck has 4 Stage2 Pokémons and you want to run 4 Candies to get them
into game as soon as possible.

Switch

Every single main Pokémon of your deck has a retreat of 2 (Reshiram, Mewtwo
EX and Typhlosion) so you really want to have Switch whenever necessary to conserve
energy.

Pokémon Catcher

Every non-trainer lock deck should run these. No exceptions.

Eviolite

The main attackers of this deck are both big HP Basics so Eviolite is a
great card in this deck and is useful at all times. Later on in this article,
I’ll introduce a “combo” that needs an Eviolite to work properly.

Energy

I’m not quite certain about the energy lines of this deck. You want to
consider running 3 different kind of energy in the deck – Fire, Rescue and
Double Colorless Energy. You need to run a good amount of Fire energy to get
Afterburner working properly. However, you may also want to run Rescues to get
back your attackers. DCE is of course for Mewtwo EX’s X-Ball but it’s also a
great card with Reshiram because Reshiram can Outrage with DCE. Getting a T1
Outrage may help you in the early game to deal just the extra damage you need
to win the game.

THE list

I’ll now show you
how my ReshiPlosion list looks at the moment. The list has included the “combo”
I mentioned earlier.

2x Double Colorless Energy
2x Rescue Energy
8x Fire Energy
=12As you can see from
the list, it’s pretty teched. There is one of everything in the trainer lines.
I also reduced the Typhlosion line into 4-2-3 because I noticed Cyndaquils get
killed very easily in the early game. That’s one of the reasons, I have Super
Rod in the list as well.

The combo, which I mentioned earlier on in this article is the Afterburner +
Pokémon Center combo. Pokémon Center is surprisingly good card in this deck
because Afterburner damages the Pokémon you attach energy to. Getting a full HP
Reshiram with Eviolite attacking is a huge deal against many decks. There are
only some Pokémons in the format that are able to OHKO a Reshiram like that.
Even Mewtwo EXs have problems with OHKOing Reshiram like that. With quick math,
Mewtwo EX needs 7 energy attached to it to OHKO a Reshiram like that which has
just hit Blue Flare. Pokémon Center is a stadium card so it’s a great tech
against trainer lock decks as well. In the past, there was nothing to counter
Tropical Beach but now ReshiPlosion can win by countering Tropical Beach and
killing the draw of a trainer lock in an instant. Stadiums are back and I’m
very glad about it, it’s one more aspect to keep in mind while building a deck
from now on.

There is one question you might be asking – why am I not running Reshiram EX?
The reason is that this deck doesn’t need it. In fact, Reshiram EX is only in
the way for this deck. It’s too easily OHKOed by Mewtwo EX because it requires
4 energy to attack high damage and it might deal damage to itself while it
already has damage after AfterBurners. If you want to attack with an EX in this
deck – Mewtwo EX is your guy – not Reshiram EX. This might seem illogical but
if you’ve played both versions of this deck, you know that in fact it’s pretty
logical.

The list runs very well and if you enjoyed playing ReshiPlosion earlier in the
HGSS-on format, I suggest you test this list and see how well it runs for you.
Whoops, I almost answered the next topic, I’m about to discuss. The real
question is…

Will ReshiPlosion make a comeback?

The answer for this
question is one simple word – yes. I’m pretty guaranteed about that answer. The
EXs were a blessing to a ReshiPlosion and the metagame treats ReshiPlosion
nicely on the other parts as well.

Remember the small bug that keeps bugging you in every tournament? It name is
Durant and its auto-loss is ReshiPlosion. The metagame in Pokémon is usually
just like Rock-Paper-Scissors and while ReshiPlosion wasn’t a set a go able to
keep up with the most top decks of the format, it suddenly becomes a great
answer against many decks. In my opinion, the irony of this is that
ReshiPlosion gained almost nothing new from the Next Destinies. However, since
the metagame changed, ReshiPlosion only needed to wait its chance to rise to
the top once again.

When I say that the format is a Rock-Paper-Scissor format, I mean it literally.
Thanks to double weaknesses, the type advantage of hitting to the weakness is
huge. While ReshiPlosion only hits at two different weaknesses that aren’t even
that popular (Fire and Psychic), the main thing is that there is nothing to
OHKO Reshirams or Typhlosions. The only playable Water type Pokémon in the
format are Kyurem and Kyurem EX. Kyurem isn’t able to do anything else than
spread and you can win the spread by just playing the game correctly. Kyurem EX
possesses no real threat because even though they can OHKO you, you can still
2HKO them easily with Reshiram. Since it’s an EX-Pokémon, 2HKOing it isn’t a
big issue.

Reshiplosion isn’t always the winner of Rock-Paper-Scissor but the most
important thing is that it never loses in RPS. That’s a huge asset when
comparing to the other decks this format has to offer.

Conclusion

Even though
ReshiPlosion isn’t the most versatile deck of the format, I think it’s one of
the better decks of the format. It has everything besides versatility: good
typing, weaknesses, combos and most of all consistency. I hope this entry
helped you to get your ReshiPlosion up-to-date and able to stand against most
decks of this format.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this article or for my
upcoming Mewtwo EX- series articles, let me know. I’m always happy to answer
any comments and questions that you might come up with.

15 comments:

I always play Engineer in my TyRam, and prefer the more aggressive plus power vs. Eviolite. I had Coblaion in my list (worked wonders against kyreum) but I guess that slot goes to MewTwo now. Wonders if Gigas might be a good play instead of Mewtwo, as I don't like giving the opponent a east counter KO, as you would probably be behind in prizes.

Gigas would almost be a counter KO in this IMO. if you afterburner 4 energy onto it its down to 140. that puts you in OHKO range of reshi/zek EX or a mewtwo EX with 3 energy. most likely mewtwo EX will be doing more damage than gigas due to so many other people running him.

Mewtwo EX should only come out as a counter to your opponent's Mewtwo EX -- and only if you have a way to get him powered up and active in a single turn. That means a way to get your active back to the bench and either a DCE in hand or one or two Typhlosions (...and energy in hand if you only have one Ty out). A lot, sure, but not overly much for a late-game situation.

By contrast, to get Regi EX powered up to the point where it can OHKO a Mewtwo EX, it'll need four energy and *twelve* damage counters/PPs. With that much setup necessary, your opponent will see it a mile away and either deal with it or avoid it appropriately.

Agreed, Regi is bad. In every board position in this format, your best play is to use Blue Flare and keep trading prizes. You can recover faster than any other deck in this format: if you can't abuse that fact you shouldn't be playing Typhlosion.

As someone who's gone nuts with making the most rock-solid Reshiphlosion list that you can possibly get: this isn't it.1) Eviolite is bad here. You're not preventing OHKOs from almost any main attacker in the format, aside from things you already run over rough-shod.2) 4 Communications is unnecessary. More draw power has proven to be superior. My current list gets away with 2 without trouble.3) 8 Fires is not enough to guarantee ANY kind of early pressure, and you never want to be the first one to commit Mewtwo.

Typhlosion decks need to be the rock of consistency if they want to win. This could not be setting up and attacking reliably on turn 2, and with only 8 fires, attaching Fire from hand (often key in the CMT matchup) doesn't seem to be possible very often.

My Crazy Changes (they work):- 1 Mewtwo EX: You don't need two. Mewtwo racing is not something you ever WANT to do with this deck, as Reshirams are an amazing check for Mewtwo.

- 4 Reshirams. You never want to run out.

- No DCE, No Switch: You have Afterburner to help power up Mewtwo, and to help retreat. You don't often need it. Switch is handy, but isn't a consistency card.

- 11 Fires, 2 Rescues: If you don't run the 1-1 Ninetales for extra draw consistency, this could go to 9, but I have a hard time feeling 11 energy in here.

- Research Records: If you run Ninetales, this is a MUST: you have 8 straight draw supporters and Ninetales. If that doesn't say "rig my draws with Research Record", I don't know what does. Research Record + Sage's Training digs 9 cards deep, and it's junk armable in a pinch. Consistency GOLD for getting that setup.

- NO EVIOLITE: You just get set up for afterburner suicides, or afterburn yourself into KO range anyway. These should ALWAYS be getting cut for consistency cards, this isn't Reshiboar.

I apologize if I'm being too harsh - I know how good of a player you are, but I also know this isn't your main deck. The lists posted here feel very under-tested for such a fast format. I'm currently running 10 draw supporters (4 Juniper, 4 Sage, 1 Cheren, 1 N), 2 Pokegear, 2 Research Record, 4 Collector, Cleffa, and a 1-1 Ninetales for consistency cards. If I were to cut the Ninetales, it would be for 1 Cheren, 1 N, that's how crucial getting your early setup is to this deck, ideally WITHOUT using Cleffa.

Also, with fewer times I WANT to use Junk Arm (Candy doesn't get reused that much with 4, though cutting to 3 is an option) I've cut down to 3, and run a third Catcher instead. You can't Junk Arm for Catcher until you find one!

First of all, I must say that Gigas EX is my number 1 worst card of the format. I hate it - and what I have experienced from it, it really doesn't work well in any deck. It can be put in any deck (God save the CMTs playing it) but it doesn't really function that well in any deck. Of course, this is just my opinion but it's a very strong well as well.

Aron: Yeah, no offense taken but I have testes ReshiPlosion quite extensively (since it was my other option as an ECC deck). I see where you're coming from with your list but as I explained in my article, this isn't a ReshiPlosion list that aims at consistency with speed. The changes you mention mess up with the strategy of my deck. As you said and as I can see from your changes, our ReshiPlosions are 2 completely different decks. This deck isn't aiming at 2 Typhlosion or even a T4 Typhlosion - it's only mission is simply win the game. It really is suprising how far away from behind can this deck really come back to the game.

The original concept of this very deck was introduced to me play test friends and when they showed me the list and told me about its match-ups, I wasn't sold. However, the more games I played with and against the deck, the more I became convinved of the fact that this, in fact, was a highly functional deck.

Anyways, thanks a lot for your thoughts. Very interesting to see your speed-built of ReshiPlosion. I didn't succeed building a fast-enough ReshiPlosion for this format because as you said, the format is very fast. That's the reason why I ended up with this built, I had to find an alternative approach to the deck because the "original" idea didn't work that well anymore in my opinion. However, as I said, this ReshiPlosion and your ReshiPlosion are two completely different decks when it comes to the strategy.

Also, as someone mentioned here this deck's biggest problem - Zekrom EX. In the end, it's the only real problem of this deck. One solution to it could be teching in a Terrakion but I don't know how it would work out. It's a problem, I'm still finding solution for.

I played tyram from the moment reshiram got released in B&W and with good results. Sometimes even with magnezone. But the zekrom/eels deck just eats tyram for lunch. Catcher typhlosion and disastervolt for KO. u had too use 3 cards in uw deck to get that typh and than its gone and its not easy to get back at all. Reshiphlosion has a nice matchup agains CMT and durant but it is not higher than a T1.5 deck.